I think about Chilean literature as a family, because I grew up reading the literature of my country. I feel like I have fathers and stepfathers and a lot of brothers and sisters and distant cousins and all that.

Publishing my book is like giving it away. At first you start talking about it, but you are basically letting go. I won't say it's like giving birth because I haven't given birth. It's more like when your children leave home.

You are told that you have to eliminate un-useful sentences, but as a writer you know how important details are.

For me, writing is a way of finding out about things I didn't know before I began writing.

As a child, all you see is that adults are not playing. Adults are not talking too much. Adults don't want to relate to each other.

If you write, and you are really alone (writing is a lonely thing), you learn to be alone without suffering. When you read, you also learn to do this. When you write, you deal with things.

We rely too much on the people we share our lives with. We hold them responsible for things they are not even aware of. We start blaming them.